Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-12-24
City of the Dead.
From the Saa Francisco Chronicle

The dim abode of the academy of sciences III Dupont street seidun pre- sents such an enilvened appearance as l. did last night, when a decidedly pop ular gathering was present to hear the distinguished explorer, Prof Gushing, lecture on the ruined city of Los Muet- tos in Arizona, which he discovered about nine months ago.
 At the outset the explorer stated that 1t was through the kindness of Mrs. Hemeway aud the bureau of ethnology of Boston that he was able to success fully pursue his explorations. In speak Ing of how he had found the city of Los Muertos he said:
 II was on my way to find some of the ancestral towns of the ZunI, and expect ed to reach them about 2OU miles from Salado, At one point my attention was called to a mound of rectangular shape in the desert, and round winch were the exact art remains which would have ex- pected to find ip New Mexico. remark ed at once on beholding 1t: Here are the remains of a town I set the men to work to dig trench, and they had not proceeded two feet downward when they found the broken remains of wall made of earth On digging further I was rewarded with magnificent examples of ancient incinerary urns in fine preserv ation That was the first of the town, and now we have uncovered that line a distance of three miles long and mile wide. The houses of the town below and around were built in huge blocks, separated by narrow, but In some lnstan ces very wide streets. The wide streets have traces of aqueducts, which show that they had in these far-back ages a magnificent system of irrigation. As to to the extent of the city, l may state that one of the blocks Is nearly as large as Zuni, which Is the largest town in New Mexico Already thirty three blocks have been excavated, and have no hes ltation in stating that Los Muertos at one time contained over 30,O00 souls. As the excavations revealed day by day more of the town I was forced to the conclusion that its abandonment was due to earthquake disturbance, which in mauv instances had thrown down the l walls, shattering them from below up wards. and i'll most cases causing them to open their four sides as though on hinges, and letting the roof fall down, which the fire in the earth had set fire to, the cane mating and cottonwood rafters, which were charred through, be- ] ing still in good preservation. It seems that the people in thelr hurry were not able to carry away anything. Articles of everyday use were found beneath these ruins, ancient jars, cooking uten- sils. axes with the handles decayed, and in some instances wearing apparel.
 Prof. Cushing then went on to talk of the burial rites of these ancient dwell CTS. They had many things, he sad in common with their descendants the Zunis. They had double system o rites. A priest believed that through his direct connection with the gods anC and ancestral spirits he has power ovel his own soul and could separate 1t iron the body at his will, while on the othe hand the souls of the common people haC to receive the aid of gods through hl intercession before disintegration tool place. Another curious fact observed il the burial ceremonies Was that the yes sells placed with the priestly dead wer left entire, whereas those found Ill tn graves of the common people were pur loosely broken This arose from belle that everything that made noise ha
 soul. A kettle on the fire boiling va
 believed to be the voice of soul sing Ing. and that when 1t broke--probabl from heat-it was the noise of the depart ing spirit. The best proof of the grea age of this town on the desert is that tn
 paraphernalia used by the priesthood
 the same as used by the priesthood (
 the bow. Plume sticks, cigarettes an
 cotton wrapping, with mystic knots tie
 round the cigarettes, are the same ;
 used by the Zunis oi to-day. The ri
 uals of these people are unvaried for eel
 turies, and they go on in never-endinl
 succession from generation to gene |. ation. At the burial four priests for
 tn emselves into square and the ciga
 ette is lighted by the master priest, al
 the ritual is pronounced.